TELSTRA going, going ... GONE

by Greg Berghofer and AAP JUST six weeks into his political career, Queensland Nationals Senator Barnaby Joyce is feeling the pressure of life in Canberra as he last night backed the Government?s full sell-off of Australia?s biggest telecommunications company Telstra.

Senator Joyce went to hospital on Tuesday night amid Community and Public Sector Union claims the sale of the remainder of the telco would cause sackings of thousands of Telstra staff, including among his own rural electoral base.

After burning the midnight oil examining the legislation, the accountant from St George yesterday voted with the government as the Senate approved the sale of the remainder of Telstra.

Although he admitted he was feeling the strain, Senator Joyce declined to confirm speculation he had been suffering chest pains when he had gone to hospital on the eve of yesterday's crucial vote.

He said he was 70-80% happy with what had been achieved for regional Australia in return for his support for the legislation to sell the rest of Telstra.

Only days ago, in Warwick, Senator Joyce had sought more time to examine the legislation.

"All these things have happened since Warwick," Senator Joyce told The Chronicle last night.

"That's what happens when the Nationals go into bat for you. If we were not there, we would not have got that."

Asked if he still would have wished to be in parliament if he had known what was ahead, Senator Joyce said not to have participated in the debate would have meant regional Australia was worse off.

"Yes, I'm glad to be a part of it (the debate) but I don?t enjoy the pressure," he said.

"You're always trying to sit back and try and balance up the right decision."

Asked if it had been a long week, Senator Joyce replied: "It has."

The Senate vote last night in favour of the sale of Telstra came as the CPSU said an internal Telstra "cost reduction document" showed Telstra's Toowoomba call centre staff would be among the thousands sacked across Australia and replaced by foreign operators following the full sale of the telco.

The union, backed by the Opposition, said the 104-page document showed between 10,000 and 14,000 of Telstra's 40,000 workers were at risk, including 121 call centre operators in Toowoomba and 16 in Roma.

And it was likely Telstra staff other than call centre operators would also go, the CPSU said.

Telstra spokesman Rod Bruem yesterday denied the existence of the document or that there had been a figure set for sackings.

However he said a "strategic review" of Telstra?s operations would be published at the end of October.

Senator Joyce said last night the labour party had been unable to produce hard documentary evidence to support its claims on job cuts.

?You can?t work on inuendo,? he told The Chronicle.

Senator Joyce earlier had told AAP Telstra management and Government ministers assured him claims of mass sackings claims were untrue.

He said given a choice of believing Government ministers and Telstra management or a rumour, he must believe the Government and Telstra.

Mr Girdler said Telstra middle managers, who were also CPSU members, had seen the report by Mr Winn and had said sackings were definitely proposed.

"The history of public service areas and public companies is that when they reduce in size, the regions get hit quite hard," he said.

"The figures we have been quoted are just call centre staff , but it may be there are staff outside those numbers that are being targeted."

Mr Girdler said the CPSU expected the call centre jobs would be contracted out or out-sourced to overseas call centres where labour is cheaper.

"If Telstra is saying there aren't going to be any job losses as a result of privatisation then let (Telstra chief executive) Sol Trujillo come out and say it and we'll be the first people to shake his hand," he said.

"But we don't believe that's the case, no-one in Telstra believes it's the case and no-one in the business community thinks it's the case and everyone expects there will be large scale job losses."

Mr Girdler said by the time Telstra officially announced the job reductions the telco would have been sold off.

"The Australian Parliament are making decisions regarding the privatisation of Telstra without the facts on the table and Telstra aren't prepared to come clean."